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Monday, April 18, 2016

Kiwanis Memories: An interview with former capstone student and current CLAS adviser Laura Marsh

Photo courtesy of Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp

Welcome to Week 4! Those of you in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) may already know Laura Marsh, a pre-health adviser. We recently sat down with Ms. Marsh to talk about her own experience as a student enrolled in the Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp capstone, and to see what advice she has for future counselors.

Please note that camper names have been changed.

Why did you decide to take the Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp Capstone?Yes, that’s a good question. I was working at Portland State full
time, so I was actually attending here part time. I wasn’t quite sure
what I wanted to do, but I was lucky enough to be working in an office
of advisors who were able to talk to me about different options. And as
soon as I heard about Kiwanis Camp, I knew that this was the right
capstone for me.
I think in part because, when I first started
college in California I was at a community college, and they had a
program called Transition to Independent Living, which allowed students
with different needs to be integrated into the campus community. It was
a relatively small program, but I had a work study with the program, so
it was my job to do Friday night fun stuff. It was a really great
opportunity for me to be able to work with that population, and they
were my peers, and it was exciting. So when I heard about camp I knew
that I didn’t have a bunch of experience, but that I had some, and I
knew I enjoyed it.
And I also love the outdoors, and growing up
here in Oregon, you know, we camped a lot, and so I knew I would be
okay with the outdoor part of camp as well. The fact that it was a
camp, and it was over the summer, and it would be done in two weeks…all
of those things were very appealing to me. I was able to take off
vacation time and worked it that way with my job, which was very nice.
Of course I had supportive people, so that was also wonderful. And then
I signed up, and the rest is history.

How did you feel in the weeks leading up to the capstone? Were you excited, nervous…?
I remember being very nervous. We had a great orientation that
happened in spring, and I don’t remember how long it was, but it was a
nice chunk of time where they kind of allowed the soon-to-be-counselors
to get a sense of what camp was going to be like. I remember they had a
couple of parents [of the campers] come in, and share their experiences
about what camp meant to their kids. So I think that helped to settle
my nerves a little bit, or at least give me a good idea of what it was
going to be like and the structure of it.
Obviously it was a very
structured and supportive environment, but leading up to the days of
starting camp? That’s when the nerves really hit, and I had just a mix
of emotions from excitement to just pure nervousness to “oh my gosh, do I
really want to do this?” So yeah, it was definitely kind of a roller
coaster of emotions.

Photo courtesy of Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp

Can you tell us a little about what the interactions were like between yourself and the campers?
Once we got there, they have a time for just the counselors to get to
know each other. And that to me was such a critical piece, because we
all were very nervous, and we really were feeling a lot of the same
emotions. So I think that put us all at ease, and it allowed us to
really get to know our group members that we were going to be with for
the two weeks. So that was really exciting.
Leading up to it,
where I think I got a little nervous was just—the first week we were
going to have boys, and [I was] a little concerned about some of the
personal care and if I was going to be comfortable doing that. And I
was able to express that with my assistant counselor supervisor and
counselor supervisor, and then what we decided was that week I would get
a camper that was maybe a little bit more independent, and that way I
could ease into that. And it worked out beautifully.
So the
very first week we had a group of boys (well, they were young adults),
and my camper was Joe. And he was amazing. And he actually was more of
an expert than I would ever claim to be about Kiwanis Camp, and many
other things. He was also into martial arts, which was amazing. So Joe
actually knew, because he had been going for such a long time to camp,
he knew more about camp than I ever did. So he was truly more of my
partner than I felt like I was his counselor. It was really cool. And
he was just a really great way for me to ease into things a little bit,
and then I was able to, throughout the week, help my group members as
needed. You know, if they needed breaks or help with anything. Joe was
so, so independent and fabulous that it allowed me to do that on my own
schedule and my own comfort level, which was nice.

Do you have any favorite memories from your time in the capstone that you’d like to share with us?
Yes, I do. So, second week I had a little bit more of a challenging
camper in a good way. They were like, “Well Laura, you did
great the first week, now we’re gonna put you to the test,” so I
actually had probably one of the more challenging campers I think for
the whole session. She was amazing, and she was nonverbal so it was a
little bit challenging in that way, and I learned a lot during that time
about patience and really putting somebody else’s needs before my own.
At that time I wasn’t a parent, and hadn’t really ever had to do that
before, so that was a great experience.
Favorite memories? You
know, I think one of my favorite memories was with Joe. So Joe was
determined to climb the wall. I don’t know what they call it, just the
rock climbing wall. But it was relatively new at camp I think at the
time, and so campers had to get invited to it. And so all week I was
trying to drop his name and do what we needed so that Joe could get his
invitation to the wall. He was not making it a secret at all; everybody
knew he wanted to tackle that wall.
So he got the invitation and
we went to go do the wall, and I just was so excited and so happy for
him because it was something he wanted to do so bad. And it was
an interesting time. Joe tackled the wall, he made it partially up the
wall before he decided he was done, so he came back down and he turned
to me and he was like, “your turn!” And I was like “Wait. Whoa! This
was your thing, Joe!” Like, I’m cheering you on. And so the tables
were a little bit turned because I was there cheering him on and trying
to get him to go a little higher, and then all of a sudden I found
myself climbing this wall, which I had no intention…had not prepared,
was NOT excited about. But I did it! And I didn’t make it to the top,
but Joe was there coaching me.
Like I said, in many ways he was
like my buddy more than I was—you know. I think that was something that
I didn’t really realize going in: how beneficial it was going to be for
me personally. I thought I was going to be there to help them have a
good time, which we did, but at the same time I was able to learn to
challenge myself in ways. It was a fun time.

And finally, what advice do you have for future counselors?
As an adviser I do get to talk a lot about camp. I try to promote it a
little bit in a way because I think it's such a wonderful experience,
and like I said before, I think in ways that we don’t always know it’s
going to be. Like, really what it’s like to put somebody else’s needs
before our own, and then also to just be in a truly authentic situation
where nerves end up going away, and you break your barriers down of
being nervous and unsure of yourself. For me it was a real confidence
builder.
So advice going in, I think I would tell students “it
sounds like its going to be really easy—two weeks!—but it’s really
not.” And not in a bad way. But the purpose of your being there is to
make sure that that camper’s experience is the best that it could
possibly be. And that’s that whole putting somebody else’s needs above
your own and before yourself. So I think going into it that way, but
also advice…Knowing that you have a lot of support. Kiwanis Camp is
extremely well-structured, there’s a ton of support there, and things
are very well scheduled, and they run really smoothly. And there’s
always going to be bumps in the road, but there’s always a lot of
support. So, I think going into it with an open mind, and just willing
to have fun and be silly and sing camp songs and enjoy the beautiful
camp. I mean, the camp is amazing, and so to go out on a canoe which I
had never done before, and have this amazing view of Mt. Hood and those
types of memories…I will never forget.
So advice: just be open to
new experiences. The nerves will be there—I always tell students
you’ll get nervous—but power through it, because it will be well worth
it in the end.